Sickle guards are well known in the art and forged sickle guards are disclosed, for example, in U.S. patents to Mills et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,619,787, dated Dec. 2, 1952, U.S. Pat. No. 2,645,987, dated Oct. 13, 1953, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,319,353 dated Oct. 5, 1955. Also sickle guards representative of the prior art are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,592 dated Mar. 2, 1971 to Jerman et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,948 dated Jan. 12, 1971 to White. The last noted patent to White typically shows a guard having horizontally spaced apart guard finger having horizontal ledger surfaces with cutting edges at the sides of each guard finger, trash bar means extending transversely at the rear of the cutting edge of the guard finger, and wear plate means spaced rearwardly of the trash bar means with there being a transverse groove between the trash bar means and the wear plate means in which mounting means for supporting cutter sections of the sickle is disposed, and in which the ledger surfaces and the upper surface of the wear bar means provide for the support of the sickle cutter sections in cutting relation to the cutting edges of the ledger surfaces. In known sickle guards embodying one or more guard finger the upper surface of the trash bar means lies in a plane below the plane of the ledger surface of a single guard finger or the plane of the ledger surfaces of a plurality of guard finger and hence lack a cutting edge for cooperation with the cutter sections in carrying out a cutting operation. It is also known that the cutting edges of the ledger surfaces may be straight or serrated as desired. It is preferable in fabricating a sickle guard to forge a steel plate along the lines disclosed in the aforementioned United States patents to Mills et al.
According to the present invention the sickle guard of the present invention is preferably forged from a steel plate generally along the lines of the aforementioned Mills et al patents except in a manner to provide a parting line to provide a sickle guard in which the upper surface of the trash bar means is disposed so that after machining, the upper surface of the trash bar means and the ledger surface of a guard having a single guard finger lie in a common horizontal plane. In guards of the present invention having more than one horizontally spaced apart guard finger the ledger surfaces thereof and the upper surface of the trash bar means all lie in a common horizontal plane. Further, the sickle guard of the present invention embodies wear plate means having an upper surface lying in the plane of the ledger surface. Further the tine or guard finger of the sickle guards fingers of the invention have cutting edges at the sides thereof and also to provide the forward end of the trash bar means with a cutting edge of the guard to substantially increase the capacity of the guard as compared to known sickle guards. The cutting edges of the ledger surface or surfaces and the trash bar means may be smooth edged or of straight line configuration or, if desired, the side edges of the tine or tines and the forward end of the trash bar means may be serrated, or the cutting edges of the sickle guard may comprise any desired combination of straight and/or serrated cutting edges as desired.